16

Treehugger: Research has shown that a healthy office space with plants and open windows is more conducive to productivity.

Do plants in the office increase the productivity of employees?

Community
  • 1
Christian
  • 33,271
  • 15
  • 112
  • 266
  • 3
    The claim is that healthy office spaces that include plants and open windows are more conducive to productivity... Not that the plants themselves increase productivity. – Chad Jul 09 '12 at 15:00
  • 1
    @Chad, to a layman (like me) what exactly is the difference between the two? – picakhu Jul 09 '12 at 18:32
  • 1
    @Picakhu - First it is a nebulous claim since there is no environment given to compare against. Second there are 3 criteria given Healthy office space, plants, and open windows. This question is trying to say that only the plants matter. While the author would love for you to infer that the author quite clearly does **not** state that. The open windows and healthy office space is important. – Chad Jul 09 '12 at 18:54
  • Finally the word is conducive. Not improved or increased. Defined as *Making a certain situation or outcome likely or possible.* So if you have high productivity already it could actually reduce productivity and still be true so long as there was a production above 0. – Chad Jul 09 '12 at 18:55
  • @Chad, So technically speaking my claim 'An office space with loud noises is (more) conducive to productivity' is by definition true? – picakhu Jul 09 '12 at 18:58
  • @picakhu The inclusion of the word more makes it incomplete... semantically invalid. But without the evaluation(more) qualifier I would evaluate your statement as true assuming work was being completed. – Chad Jul 09 '12 at 19:03
  • 3
    I don't think there is any doubt that the claim is that "putting plant in an offices increases productivity". I've added the next sentence from the context to make it clearer. – Sklivvz Jul 09 '12 at 20:09
  • Plenty of examples of the claim and *(hint-hint)* scholarly articles on google: http://www.plants-in-buildings.com/whyplantsstressreduction.php – Sklivvz Jul 09 '12 at 20:10
  • 1
    @Sklivvz: Those studies are based on psychological, not clean air, which was the basis for the study cited. Might also note the study cited might be flawed, since there was not a control that tested if fake plants, or just change itself was the cause. – blunders Jul 09 '12 at 20:20

1 Answers1

1

There doesn't seem to be an obvious increase of productivity, despite some biased summaries. It seems to depend on how the workplace is and the employees themselves:

Lohr, Virginia I., Caroline H. Pearson-Mims, and Georgia K. Goodwin. "Interior plants may improve worker productivity and reduce stress in a windowless environment." Journal of Environmental Horticulture 14 (1996): 97-100.:

This study documents some of the benefits of adding plants to a windowless work place-a college computer lab. Participants' blood pressure and emotions were monitored while completing a simple, timed computer task in the presence or absence of plants. When plants were added to this interior space, the participants were more productive (12% quicker reaction time on the computer task) and less stressed (systolic blood pressure readings lowered by one to four units). Immediately after completing the task, participants in the room with plants present reported feeling more attentive (an increase of 0.5 on a self-reported scale from one to five) than people in the room with no plants.

enter image description here

Larsen, Larissa, et al. "Plants in the Workplace The Effects of Plant Density on Productivity, Attitudes, and Perceptions." Environment and Behavior 30.3 (1998): 261-281.:

This experiment measures the effects of indoor plants on participants' productivity, attitude toward the workplace, and overall mood in the office environment. In an office randomly altered to include no plants, a moderate number of plants, and a high number of plants, paid participants (N = 81) performed timed productivity tasks and completed a survey questionnaire. Surprisingly, the results of the productivity task showed an inverse linear relationship to the number of plants in the office, but self-reported perceptions of performance increased relative to the number of plants in the office. Consistent with expectations, participants reported higher levels of mood, perceived office attractiveness, and (in some cases) perceived comfort when plants were present than when they were not present. Decreased productivity scores are linked to the influence of positive and negative affect on decision making and cognitive processing.

Ulrich, Roger S. "Human responses to vegetation and landscapes." Landscape and urban planning 13 (1986): 29-44.:

The rapidly expanding research record concerning aesthetic, emotional and physiological response to visual landscapes is summarized, with emphasis on aesthetic preferences for views containing trees and other vegetation. The survey is set within a conceptual perspective suggesting that affective responses such as aesthetic preference are central to a landscape observer's thoughts, conscious experience and behavior. Substantial progress has been made in developing models that relate aesthetic responses to specific visual properties of environments. When aesthetic preferences are compared for urban and unspectacular natural views, American and European adult groups evidence a strong tendency to prefer nature. However, liking for urban scenes usually increases when trees and other vegetation are present. Views of nature, compared to most urban scenes lacking natural elements such as trees, appear to have more positive influences on emotional and physiological states. The benefits of visual encounters with vegetation may be greatest for individuals experiencing stress or anxiety. Recent research demonstrates that responses to trees and other vegetation can be linked directly to health, and in turn related to economic benefits of visual quality.

Franck Dernoncourt
  • 7,224
  • 4
  • 33
  • 76